SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
[First Reprint]
SENATE, No. 4716
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: JANUARY 8, 2026
The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 4716 (1R).
As amended, this bill modifies certain provisions of current law, including the “Charter School Program Act of 1995,” to impose various new requirements pertaining to charter school admission, enrollment, reporting, and athletics.
Student Records and Student Placement Liaisons
This bill directs the chief school administrator or lead person of a public school, including a charter school, to designate a staff member to serve as a student placement liaison. The student placement liaison is responsible for: (1) coordinating with the student’s school of last attendance, or a student’s subsequent educational placement in the case of a student exiting the public school, and the student’s parent or guardian to ensure the successful transition of the student; and (2) tracking and maintaining student enrollment data, including information on student transfers into or out of the public school, to ensure State school aid is provided in accordance with State law and regulation.
Under the bill, a charter school’s student placement liaison is also required, to the greatest extent practicable, to conduct an exit interview when a student exits the charter school for a reason other than graduation.
Charter School Admissions and Enrollment
The bill prohibits a charter school from establishing criteria to evaluate prospective students or from imposing qualifications for enrollment on a student selected through a random selection process established by the charter school to determine admission in the event that more students apply than there are spaces available. The bill also permits a charter school to give enrollment priority to the children of teaching staff members, regardless of residence.
This bill prohibits a charter school from counseling or advising a student to withdraw from the charter school. The bill provides that this provision is not to be construed as prohibiting a charter school’s child study team from considering, with the full participation of a student’s parent or guardian, a program or placement option for a student with a disability that includes placement in another setting in accordance with federal and State law concerning students with disabilities.
Charter School Reporting
Under the bill, a charter school is required to include information on the number of students exiting the charter school in the preceding school year to the Commissioner of Education as part of an annual report provided by the charter school to the commissioner under current law. The information would include last dates of attendance, reasons for exiting the charter school, and subsequent educational placement. The information would not include a student’s personal identifying information or any other information that would violate the student’s privacy rights.
Interscholastic Athletics
The bill requires charter schools offering interscholastic athletics to join a voluntary association, such as the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. The charter school would be governed by the rules and regulations of the association. Under the bill, the rules and regulations of the association are deemed to be the policy of the board of trustees and enforced first by the internal procedures of the association. The bill outlines when a decision by the association would be appealed to the commissioner or the Superior Court. Under the bill, the rules and regulations of the voluntary association only apply to association sanctioned activities offered by the charter school.
Under the bill, a non-resident student enrolled in a charter school would have to meet certain requirements in order to participate in interscholastic athletics at the charter school. The bill permits the commissioner to waive these requirements for a non-resident student whose school district of residence does not offer the interscholastic athletic activity in which the student participates. The bill also clarifies that these new conditions are not to apply to any student enrolled in a charter school on the effective date of this bill.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amended the bill to:
· clarify that students who were enrolled in a charter school in the immediately preceding school year may remain enrolled in the charter school in the appropriate grade unless the appropriate grade is not offered at the charter school;
· replace certain language that referenced students who do not reside in the school district in which a charter school is located, with language referencing non-resident students;
· remove the requirement that the Commissioner of Education approve the enrollment of students who do not reside in the school district in which a charter school is located;
· remove the requirement that the commissioner establish a procedure for the enrollment of students who do not reside in the school district in which a charter school is located;
· remove the requirement that the commissioner establish minimum qualification standards and training requirements for the position of student placement liaison;
· clarify that the chief school administrator or lead person of a public school, including a charter school, is to designate a staff member to serve as a student placement liaison; and
· remove the requirement that the commissioner post on the Department of Education’s Internet website the report card information of a charter school that is otherwise required under current law.
FISCAL IMPACT:
This bill has not been certified as requiring a fiscal note.